Website helping teachers with donations, supplies

Teachers at public schools are having a harder time than ever making sure their students have the materials they need to succeed.

By Kendra CarterTimes Staff Writer

Teachers at public schools are having a harder time than ever making sure their students have the materials they need to succeed.A “Ms. G.,” a first-grade teacher at Baiste Cultural Arts Academy in New Orleans, needs four classroom big book sets for her students.“Mrs. H,” in Rogers, Ark., wants her fifth-grade students at Grace Hill Elementary to have construction paper and colored pencils “for their imaginations to run wild in creating books, art, models and other means ...”In Alabama, “Mrs. G's” students at Keith High School in Orrville need grammar notebooks not only to help them learn skills, but to help them pass the mandatory Alabama High School Graduation Exam.These three teachers represent thousands of projects on DonorsChoose.org, an online charity allowing donors to contribute to public school classrooms in need throughout the country. According to the charity's website, 5,283 donors this week (as of Friday afternoon) have helped complete 1, 336 projects, reaching an estimated 113,162 students. The New York-based charity was created in 2000 by a then-25-year-old Charles Best, a social studies teacher at Wings Academy in the Bronx. Since its beginning, the website says, more than 142,000 projects have been funded. More than $57 million has been raised and nearly 3.5 million students have been helped.“This is a resource that would be valuable for classroom teachers who are struggling with the financial limitations we are having to work within,” said JoAnn Crow, math teacher at Gadsden City High School.Crow found out about DonorsChoose during a summer class at Jacksonville State. She's now got a $480 project online, asking for two classroom calculator sets because, she said, she has some calculators, but not enough for the entire class.“My kids ... many of them don't have funds to buy calculators,” Crow said, adding a lot of at-risk students, particularly students with problems on basic computations, still can work higher math problems if they have the right tools. Projects are posted on the site for five months. Online donors can make monetary contributions to the project, and once the total cost — which includes vendor shipping charges, state sales tax, an optional donation to DonorsChoose and other fees — the organization sends the requested items, rather than money, to the teachers.Along with the items, a disposable camera and thank-you note kit also is shipped to the teachers. According it its website, the organization develops the pictures after the cameras are mailed back, then sends the photos and notes to donors who contributed to making the classroom request a reality.Crow is the only teacher in the Gadsden City schools or in Etowah County to have listed a need online. She said she thinks other teachers like her could benefit from this source.While other teachers in the county have used the site in the past, Crow is the only one listed on the site now. She said she thinks other teachers like her could benefit from this source.“They (donors) can do it $5 at a time if they want, so it's not a big expense for one person,” Crow said.“I hope other teachers can see this, and the community can come together and support our schools — not just me and my school, but all over our area,” she added.

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